Closing Jordan Planet: Wrong Decision

There's nothing to justify closing Jordan Planet. The quality of posts have not really detoriorated from before but it's now harder to follow. In case the administration felt there were too many blogs, it could have simply frozen some blogs especially those inactive ones, or restrict posting to a certain number of posts per week or month, or come up with different suggestions.

If it was to make a new design for the planet, that could have been done without shutting down the site for six months, and if the bloggers were asked I'm almost certain they'd prefer keeping Jordan Planet rather than closing it for six month to add new colors.

Besides, the old Jordan Planet where the front page was full of picutres was much more attractive to read than the most recent where almost no photos would appear on the front page.

I really don't know who's running the planet other than Isam, he did a wonderful job creating the planet, and if needed help I'm sure many bloggers would be more than happy to, but closing down the site seems like avoiding solving a problem rather than dealing with it.

Again, if there are other reasosns for closing JP we need to know.

America needs Sawsan Tuffaha

The cable news channels in the US are useless. You watch the news bulletin for one hour and it would be interrupted at least five times by commercials, and the news itself is just one line followed by different headlines in big fonts and arrows and colors then appear a few people to discuss the story. It doesn't matter who these people are, nobody knows, but they need to have different points of view and the viewer is to take sides. That makes the news exciting! The problem is that it's really difficult tot tell what the piece of news was. Among all of these debates you really miss the actual news.

What's worse? the news itself. Celebrities get most of the attnetion, the stupid legal cases that affect nobody like a missing girl in Aruba or three college students raping a strip dancer and this news took more space than the war in Iraq and definitely than news in any other area in the world.

The Sawsan-Tuffaha news is the one when someone who doesn't smile or frown shows up on a TV screen at a certain time, shoots the news for 20 minutes straight in your face, nonstop, no commercials, all serious news, and celebrties are mentioned in it only when they die. News are not enjoyable anyway, you'd be a moron to enjoy watching news about wars and earthquakes but that's the news and that's how it's supposed to be.

Many Americans are getting their news first from comedians like Jay Leno and Bill Maher even the Jon Stewart before they get it from what's supposed to be the real news channels!

America needs Sawsan Tuffaha.

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Here's of clips from Jon Stewart making fun of cable news, hilarious!!

A Christmas Diary

It was mid-December and I haven't decided yet what I should do for Christmas. I remembered my first Christmas in the US which I spent with my gay friend and his lover, and that time I made a decision not to spend any Christmas in Arizona anymore. I bought a super-expensive ticket to Chicago to visit my sister there. Cool.

Next... Gifts, yes I gotta get some gifts... Let's see , I was overloaded with work from Dec 5th till the 23 rd with NO DAYS OFF at all. The only day when I could shop was the 24th, the day of my flight. My flight was scheduled at 6 pm, so I had some time to shop in the morning.

I woke up at 9, watched TV and played FIFA World Cup 2006 and won the cup again with Argentina, and this time I defeated Brazil 11-0 in the final. Although that was the 46th time that I win with Argentina, I am still celebrating everytime they win by kicking the sofa 12 repetitive times and jumping on my bed for 5 minutes and, occasionally, running to my patio and screaming "3aaaaaaaa" until my neighbor's dog starts barking. Now it's 11am and I'm really screwed because I had to drive to the airport in Phoenix and that takes 2 hours (unless you're drunk then it's 1 hour 15 minutes) and I still have to do my Christmas shopping. I took a quick shower and was about to leave, then I heard a knock on my door. It was my neighbor. I opened the door...

"Hi" she said, and the smell of beer spread across my apartment and filled it replacing the smell of the old rotten yogurt I bought in August and was too lazy to throw away.

She continued, "listen, I know you're going to Chicago, Chris (her boyfriend) is a crazy Chicago Bears' fan , he wants that Bears cap that Snoop dogg wears in his last video".

"How does the cap look like?"

"I don't know, I don't watch Snoop Dogg, but it's black and covered with red in the front and has a big red C on it, it's not orange, it's red, and the C is different from C in Cubs. Chris told me that cap looks naaaasty!"

"Do you know what's the video? I can check it on youtube"

"It has tam tam tana tana in it" then she started moving her head circumferentially.

"But there's like 5 million songs that have tam tam tana tana in them!"

"Let's google it"

I googled everything and went to the Chicago Bear's website and couldn't find the freakin cap she was talking about, and somehow I convinced her that the Chicago Bears made Snoop Dogg a special cap just for that clip.

"Now what should I get him for the new year? He loves the bears"

I felt sorry for her, so I searched ebay for the Bears products and found a T-shirt for their star Brian Urlacher with a print on it "Brian Urlacher will make you his bitch"!! She was sooooo happy when she found it and she bought it.

Now it was 12.30, I called my friend in Phoenix and he told me to come early so we can hang out together before the flight. I went to the Mall on my way and did my Christmas shopping in 20 minutes. I was in Phoenix by about 3.

I called my friend on his cell.... no answer.
I called again... wala eshi

I rang the bell of his house, nobody opened.
I was about to open the door and go check inside, but I remembered there was another guy living with him with a 3agel karaki who's never met me, and maybe if he sees me coming in like that he might grab his gun and shoot me in the face. Retrospecitvely I know now that he was sleeping. I did not come in. I called another friend, we had lunch then I headed toward the airport.

I was supposed to go to terminal 4 but I went to terminal 3 instead. I thought to myself "ma howeh kulhom terminals" . I parked there. I'm not sure if there's a longterm parking but if there was one I did not use it. I parked in the regular parking where they charge your ass 3 dollars an hour. I was short of time so I just parked and took my two carry-ons and left. I realized that when you're supposed to go to terminal 4, you need to park there. I had to take a bus to terminal 4 and that wasted a lot of time.

I arrived at the security check and stood in the line. My Arab paranoia started to kick in. I remembered that some airports in the US started to hire specialists in psychological profiling. These people observe the behavior of the passengers standing in security checkups and if they a strange behavior they'd take the passenger and search him very carefully and ask him a zillion questions. Just knowing that someone might be observing me made me nervous, and now I thought to myself, "I'm a young Arab male with an Arabic passport traveling on Christmas Eve, alone, not even carrying my passport or any of my work documents, and totally unshaven, add to that that my karsh gives the impression that I'm hiding four explosive belts. " I thought that if I was one of those who do psychological profiling I would definitely stop "me" and ask myself questions.

Then I remembered that I put my shaving razor inside my carry-on. Oops! Is that allowed? I didn't now and still don't know, but that just worsened my paranoia. I kept smiling and smiling and I was smiling even more that how much late Rafe3 Shaheen would smile for a female contestant. I passed through security in less than 30 seconds, no questions asked, no carry-ons opened or searched. My only thought was "these security people let me pass smoothly, they need some extra training".

I arrived at the gate at 6.25, my flight was scheduled to take off at 6.35 and yes it did. I was the last passenger to check in! I was totally surprised. It was a Southwest flight and on Christmas eve and still took off on time. In case you've never traveled Southwest, it works like the public buses, whoever gets in the plane first would sit where he likes, and it might stop on its way to drop and pickup passengers without changing planes. The flight went fine, except when I had to use their extremely tiny one restroom shared by the 150 passengers on the plane. I'll try not to be very graphic, but when a male is releasing his liquidish product of metabolism, he has to point well down to where it is supposed to land, and with all the turbulences during the flight nothing of that was possible. Looking at how the restroom looked like whenI went in, I was sure that at least five men had that same problem before me.

I arrived, it was nice to meet the family. Today was Christmas and we went to have the Christmas lunch at the house of my brother-in-law's aunt who lost her husband last month, so the whole family in Chicago (over 40 people) went to her house for lunch.

On the way there I asked my brother-in-law, "What should I tell them there, Merry Christmas or Yeslam Raasko (sorry for your loss)?

He replied," Say Merry Christmas, her husband died more than a month ago, and it's Christmas now, say Merry Christmas"

then my sister interrupted , "you should say Yeslam Raasko, because so far you haven't paid condolences and this is your first visit there, so we should say Merry Christmas but you're supposed to say Yeslam raasko"

then my brother-in-law said, "Listen habibi, people will greet you first, and they will say Merry Christmas first, so you can just reply back with Merry Christmas"

I was still confused about what to say, so when I got there I decided not to say anything. I just shook hands and nodded my head and made some sounds with my mouth with a lot of "Sh" and "S' and "e3" and believe me when you say these words in a low voice repetitively while nodding your head they would give the impression that you are saying real words of a greeting that the other person cannot hear. Surprisingly, you'll find the other person nodding his head and saying words that you cannot understand.

Then came a young man and handled me a cup of coffee (gahweh sadah), and the dilemma was whether or not I should shake the cup when I'm done and what to say, Merry Christmas or Yeslma Raasko. It shouldn't sound that bad except that there were all these men who I barely know watching me and I felt that if I made a mistake they'd be talking about it up until the next Christmas (and their wives would talk about it forever). The man who gave me the coffee stood next to me waiting for me to finish it. I drank the coffee really slowly, thinking of should I do. I thought about dropping that cup and breaking it and pretend it was an accident, but the floor was covered with carpet, it wouldn't break. Then, thank God, that man turned his head to he other side to look for something, and in the blinking of an eye I extended my hand to the nearby table and landed the cup of coffee there.

We had lunch, a damn good one, and just before I left the unbelievable happened again, another man came next to me and handled me another cup of coffee. I took the coffee, drank it, but this time the man did not leave or turn his head, he was standing in front of me as if he was saying ,"and now what will you do ya tabara?"

I drank the coffe, then looked at the man and handled him the cup as I was saying "esh" and "e3" and "ess" while nodding my head, gave him a smile, and then asked my brother-in-law about when are we going to leave.

I love Christmas :)

Merry Christmas

Bethlehem in 1896

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"People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism"......

That was a good reminder on a Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas

Try this at home

I was called at 6 in the morning to admit this old man to the ICU because he couldn't breathe. The ER doctor was very concerned because he was having angioedema.
Angioedema is a very rapid swelling of the throat which usually results from an allergy. This man started to take a new medication a day before that he was allergic to, so his neck swelled up in a few minutes and he came to the ER.

I went to see him. He could not talk at all, his tongue and the entire neck were massively swollen. He tried to speak but no words came out. The biggest concern was for his throat to completely close up and he would then stop breathing. That was a matter of time, probably a few minutes.

To prevent him from dying we had to make a big hole (called tracheostomy) in his neck to allow him to breathe. Cool. The only problem is that I don't know how to make this hole, I've never done it and never will, I'm not trained to and I'm not officially supposed to. I turned to the ER doctor and asked him about it, and I could see him almost shitting in his pants because he didn't know how to do it either. We had to call the specialist and bring him from home to do it. That would usually take at least half an hour to do and by then the patient would be in heaven singing with angels.

We gave the patient a bunch of medications and we were hoping they would still work. We gave extra doses of each medication and still waited to see some improvement. Time passed and the old man started to breathe better... good, then he started talking and that was great. An hour later he was able to speak well so by the time the surgeon arrived to the hospital in his pyjama there was no need to stick a knife in the man's throat.

The old man told me the story

"I woke up with this pain in my neck. I couldn't move it and I felt I was losing my breath"

"So did you call 911 for help?"

"No, I couldn't speak, if I called them what the hell was I gonna say, I couldn't say anything"

"Well sir if you would have called 911 and you didn't say anything they will locate your address and come in to your place"

"Oh, I didn't know that!"

"Ok so what did you do, how did you come in to the hospital? Did someone drive you here"

"No, I drove myself, but I didn't know the address to the hospital, it's been a long time since I've been here"

"Did you drive here while you were out of breath"

"Yes I had to, I didn't find another way, the problem is that I forgot how to get in"

"What did you do?"

"I stopped by a couple who were jogging and asked them for directions"

"But you couldn't talk....."

"That's right, but I had a pen, I wrote my questions down on a piece of paper "How do I get to the VA Hospital?"

"Wow...."

" ....but the couple did not the address, they told me it's in the South but they didn't exactly where. "

"So what did you do? Did you ask other people?"

"No, it was 5 in the morning and the street was empty, so I went back home and checked the address on the internet and got in here"

"where you out of breath all this time?"

"Yes, I felt I was gonna die, but I had to do something"

"If this happens next time, call 911 immediately and they'll come pick you up"

"What if they I didn't have a phone around?"

"We will give you allergy needles, if you couldn't breathe grab one of these needles and inject yourself with them until you get to the hospital"

"What if they did not work"

I thought for a second then told him, "then grab a knife a stick it in the middle of your neck, that's where your breathing tube is located, and this can help you breathe. With all honesty that's exactly what we were about to do in the emergency room"

I was waiting for him to ask ,"what if there was no knife around" but he didn't. He seemed to really like the idea of stabbing his neck with a knife.

He did well overnight and we discharged him home the following day.....

I just hope that he doesn't come one day to the ER with a knife sticking out of his throat and him wiriting on a piece of paper , "this is not working, what should I do now?"

Good-bye Tom and Jerry

Very few men could come up with something that would unite the whole world
One of these men, Joe Barbera, died last night in LA.
Enjoy one of his clips......

Gimme a break

I admitted a patient one month ago to the hospital as a favor for the on-call team because they were very busy. He had a pneumonia (lung infection). Next day another team took over his care, I was expecting him to get better and leave in a couple of days.

Two weeks after that I was passing by and I found his name on the board. I was surprised he was still in the hopsital.

For a second I was concerned I made a mistake when I admitted him, "Have I missed something?? Did this man have a heart attack that I missed??"

I checked with his nurse.

"Hey why is Mr. X still here, I admitted him 2 weeks ago!"

"Yeah doc something happened in the hospital"

"What?"

"Do you know nurse Glory doc?"

" Nurse Glory.... yeah I think so" and I was thinking of that chubby nurse who works in that section

" She was changing his IV doc, and she slipped, and she fell real hard doc, real hard"

" Wow! Is she OK"

"Yes she is , but Mr. X is not, she fell down on him doc, poor guy, she broke his hip, he got a DVT now (blood clot) and he can't walk"

"And how's his pneumonia"

"It's good doc, you fixed his lungs doc"

"That's good, now you gotta call someone to fix his hip"

Truth fears no questions

"Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom"

~Thomas Jefferson

Thank you Jimmy Carter

On Bush's visit to Jordan

In Jordan we make everyone feel like he's home.....

It's about time

It's about time men admit that they are the weaker sex.

I keep hearing men discouraging women from work because she might get sexually harassed. What amazes me is how a man, an adult man, would say clearly ,"I can't focus at work because of all the women around. Why are they allowed to work?"
I got a solution for you boss, castrate yourself or maybe just quit your job and go to the moon and hopefully the creatures there won't turn you on.

If men are the ones chasing women and losing focus in work or college because of them, I'd say let's lock men inside their houses because the victim should not be the one who suffers the consequences of the criminal. I promise you if all men are locked up no woman on earth will sexually harassed, wouldn't that make you happy ? Isn't that your ultimate goal that your sister and wife can work and study away from these monsters from your own sex who are turned on from nothing?

When it comes to covering up it becomes a little bit controversial. I support the woman's choice to cover her as much as she wants from her body or uncover it if she likes to, but I wonder why is it that men are the ones raging about this issue, whether they are pro or against it. Men argue that women are very seductive if they show their hair, and they should cover themselves up to protect him from sinning by jumping on her. Excuse me Mr. Testosterone but if you feel you're losing your concentration because there's a lady sitting ten meters away from you working on a bunch of papers then you are just an animal, or let's say just a human being from a second class. A human being who is weaker than the woman who doesn't complain about you being around as long as you behave yourself.

Some men argue that this is natural, men do get attracted to women more than it's the other way around. They tend to chase them and harass them and even rape them much more than it's the other way around. Cool, when you mention it please don't claim that men are the stronger sex because it looks like you're so damn weak in front of any source of estrogen.

The last argument any man has is the physical power, the muscles, wow. I'm fat and physicallyl unfit and can't lift a 20-pound box without pulling a muscle but that should not give a bodybuilder more civil rights than me.
Shouldn't men wonder that if God gave them more muscles that they gave women something they don't have?

Remembering Peter Arnett

On my birthday I checked all the great events that took place on that day and changed the world, other than m y birth of course. It was a bit disappointing to read about all the earthquakes and volcanoes, the nice people who died and the massacres and famines that killed people on the day I was born. The only thing that I liked was to know that Peter Arnett was born on the same day.

The reason we miss Beetar is that he was in Iraq reporting stories that his administration did not like. They didn't like him saying that the factory used to make baby milk was bombed by Americans and he was fired for opposing the war in Iraq on TV although other journalists supported that war on TV as part of being "patriotic".

That's what he reported from Iraq in 2003 and cost him his job
"So our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States. It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments."

Al-Jazeera doesn't sound too biased to me.

معا يدا بيد من اجل حماية الدعارة .... Protecting Prositution

بعض الناس معجبون بزواج المتعة والبعض الاخر بالزواج فقط من اجل المتعة و حديثا بدا الزواج العرفي بالانتشار والفكرة تعجب الكثيرين لان الشغلة ما فيها مسؤولية ولا ارتباط ولا اطفال ولا اساس لتكوين عائلة كل ما فيه انو اثنين معجبين ببعض بس مش عارفين ينامو مع بعض فبقرروا يظحكوا على الناس وعلى الله بورقة

و جديد اجت فكرة عبقرية اسمها زواج فريند تهدف الى حماية الشباب والشابات من تاثير "الانحلال الاخلاقي" للغرب علينا لذلك يسمح الزواج فريند بهذا الانحلال لكن هذا الانحلال بكون انحلال برخصة يعني وثيقة يوقعها الشاب والفتاة المؤدبان العفيفان الذان تحت تاثير الغرب الكافر تاثرت اخلاقهما لكنهما سيوقعان على هذه الورقة وبذلك سيمارسان "حقوقهم الزوجية" بينما الشباب الغربي شعب فاسق لانه يمارس المجون دون توقيع هذه الورقة

مشان الله يا جماعة هذه المصطلحات كالزواج العرفي والمتعة والزواج افريند شوهت من سمعة الدعارة واعطتها اسما سيئا لذلك ادعوا الجميع ال احترام اقدم مهنة في التاريخ وتسميتها باسمها الصحيح

When America Votes and when Jordan votes

Americans voted today to select people who will proudly have the mission of screwing them up.

Unlike Jordan, you cannot go out in the streets to dance to the music of a 70-year old man shooting in the air without even knowing who was elected.

Here in Arizona people voted against banning gay marriage unlike all other states which voted to ban it. A gay doctor at my work sent an e-mail to everyone expressing his joy and the joy of his partner and mentioned that he is "proud of Arizona". On my behalf I congratulate koll el khawalaat for this result.

A black Muslim won for the first time in the US history after getting 56% of the votes in his district in Minnesota. He was endorsed by Muslims and , after describing that he will not use religion in his campaign and after he showed his great respect for Israel, he was endorsed by the Jews. I never thought before that 56% of Minnesottans are either black, Jewish or Muslims. They all decided to vote him. They were all united to kick the republicans out of that district, united despite their differences.......

Will someone please invite republicans to form a party in the Middle East?

They divide states in America to either red states which are Republican states or blue states which vote for democrates.
Imagine something like that happening in Jordan. We'll be dividied into Bani Sakher states, Hamaydeh states, Majali states and the I-don't-care-about-elections-I-am-here-to-eat-the-mansaf-before-the-elections states.

In Arizona they also voted YES for making English the official language of the state! Imagine Jordanians being asked about having Arabic as the official language of Jordan. Would you think people in certain areas would vote with "NO"? When I hear the speeches of our Parliament members I always think "they need to go back to the third grade to learn some grammar".

Americans voted to approve or disapprove propositions. The main ones were those concerning gay marriage, abortion, raising the minimum wage (per hour), stem cell research and smoking in public places.

I don't think that will work in Jordan. We believe that homosexuality is a virus that affects people in the Western hemisphere. Abortion will always be illegal although it's easier to be performed in Jordan than an appendix surgery. Raising the minimum wage per hour is not a controversial issue because the minimum wage per hour for workers in Jordan will always be the minimum currrency that can be handled to workers. Smoking in public places will never be restricted before doctors agree to quit smoking inside their clinics. Stem cell research might become an issue in Jordan some time in the next five hundred years.

However we can still vote on many propositions, like who in the family is allowed to kill the girl who decided to make a phone call to a stranger, and whether or not we should throw anyone who makes an interview with Al-Jazeera in jail. Our Parliament members will be very enthusiastic to vote to raise the minimum wage, for themselves.


During the whole elections, Republicans were scaring the hell out of people that if democrates won rates won, everything will go wrong in America and the rest of the world. Given that this is already happening, people thought they had nothing to lose and chose to vote for democrates. Comedian Stephen Colbert made fun of that in his show, saying:

"Tomorrow you're all gonna wake up in a brave new world. A world where the constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones created in a stem cell research lab run by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags. Where tax and spend Democrats take all your hard earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio and teach evolution to illegal immigrants. Oh, and everybody is high! Whooooa"

Ironically, he was ironic.

Anxiety Problems

2001

Just arrived to the US

Not knowing where to stay in Connecticut or how to pronounce Connecticut , I found a room at an old lady's house, for 400 dollars a month, great deal, and I had no other options.

She was 80 years old and bitchin'

On the phone, she told me "Will you be comfortable living with Heidi?"

I said, "Oh yeah, I'll be very comfortable living with Heidi"

She said, "Great. She's a pure German Shepherd"

I'm not a friend with animals. I fear them and they fear me, but this was my only option, I was ready to live with a dinosaur if I had to.

We met and she introduced me to Heidi, Heidi jumped and licked my hand, and I froze for fifteen minutes.

For the next three days I locked myself inside my room to avoid Heidi.
I had to go to work every morning, I used to sneak out barefoot from my room so I wouldn't wake up Heidi, and I would wear my shoes outside. The old lady noticed that I was not the dog's best friend.

On the fifth day, I returned home in the evening and found that all my clothes and books are covered with shit. It was clear that Heidi has defecated on all my belongings while I was not there. I told the old lady.

the old lady screamed at me, "You're a doctor, do you think she has cancer?"

I said, "Yes, and she might die soon"

the lady was horrified, "Maybe I should take her to a vet"

The day after that, July 3rd , which I remeber very well, I returned home thinking, "I hope the bitch took the bitch to a doctor so she'd stop shitting on my stuff"

I opened the door and the old lady looked at me very seriously.

"Listen, I took Heidi to psychiatrist today, and he told me that she is suffering from an anxiety problem because of you"

I looked at the lady , "Anxiety problem?"

She said, "Yes , she's very anxious because of you, you're a stranger and my sweet Heidi is not comfortable with you in the house. You have to leave now. Hurry up and pack your clothes, I found you another place to go to. I don't want you to live on the street, and I'll give you the 400 dollars back."

I was shocked. "Ok can't we go tomorrow?"

She said, "No, No, I told you she has an anxiety problem. You have to leave NOW"

I felt the old lady was more anxious than her dog and I didn't want her to get a heart attack because I needed someone to drive me to my new location, so I went back to my room and started packing my luggages that I unpacked only a few days back.

I couldn't believe she took her to a psychiatrist. I remembered how in Jordan we had people trying to kill themselves and their whole tribe and claim they were Bill Clinton and James Bond before their families would even consider taking them to a psychiatrist, and now this dog went to see a dog psychiatrist for her "anxiety problem".

The old lady dropped me at my new location. It was also the house of another senior citizen.

She greeted me with a smile, "Welcome to my house, so you're a medical student?"

"Yes"

"From where?"

"Jordan"

"Is that in Tennessee?"

"No it's in the Middle East, next to Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia...."
(That was before 9/11)

"Hmmmmm.... ???"

"Western Asia"

"I see, close to Russia?"

"Kinda..."

She hesitated for a few seconds, then added, "I heard you eat dogs there"

"No, we don't, we don't eat dogs"

"Do you eat cats"

"No we don't eat cats either"

"Good, because I have a cat" and she pointed a golden fat cat sitting arrogantly on sofa next to the TV.

With all my courage, I went to the cat , hugged it and kissed it on its disgusting small nose or whatever protrusion there was between the eyes. The cat was shocked and gave me a loud Meawww and the lady smiled back at me.

I went to bed that night, praying for him to keep all the anxiety problems away from our cats and dogs.

O Canada... We will be there

JORDAN TO THE WORLD CUP

Jordan qualified to the U-20 WORLD CUP held next year in Canada after defeating China 2-1 in the Asian Cup.


It's always nice to defeat a team of a nation of one billion and be the only Arab representative from Asia in the biggest international competition.

See you next year in Canada, I'll be there.

Mabrook !!

Borat

I don't know how to write movie previews, but this movie is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

I never missed any of his "Da Ali G show" episodes, but the movie kicks ass.

Briefly, it's a story of a man from Kazakhistan (Eastern Europe) who visits the US and is faced with a different world. There's a big cultural shock, but this time it's the Americans who suffer it.

Nothing beats this, it's so real.

Here are some clips of the movie, but the movie is much better

This is an interview with David Letterman, hilarious!!!!

Comparison

Two presidents

Thousands of their own people died because of their selfishness, arrogance and bigoty.

One got a death sentence, and the other got re-elected.

Faysali .... Champions

I don't care if it's the most prestigious competition in Asia or not,

It's called Asia's Cup and Al Faysali played and won and they are what I call the champions, if I'm not mistaken there was a cup they carrried back home in the end, for the second year in a row.

Mabrooooook

A long journey

Last year, I visited Jordan for a month, then returned to the US. As usual, I forgot some of my personal stuff in Amman.

After arrival, I called my family.

My father.... "Listen, our friends are visiting their son in Arizona, we'll give them all what you forgot here in Amman"

"Ok, what did I forget?"

"Your jacket"

"It's OK, it's not too cold here"

"Baseeta, we'll give them the jacket to give it to you"

"Ok shokran"

"Also your kalaseen (underwear)"

"Ha?"

"Your kalaseen, you forgot 2 pieces of kalaseen here in Amman, we'll give it to them with the jacket"

"It's not important, balaash, it's not important"

"No we'll send them to you, the jacket and the kalaseen"

Eight days later......

My father's friend and his wife just arrived to Arizona, they called me.

"Marhaba 3ammo, keefak? We brought you the jacket and all your stuff"

"Ok thank you 3ammo, how's the trip?"

"The trip was great, Ariozna is nice, and your parents in Amman say hi, don't forget they sent you the jacket and the stuff with us"

then their son took the phone....

"Man are you XX large?"

"Yes"

"Man how do you wear these kalaseen, they are huge, beddi a3mal menhom baraadi"

He lived about 2 hours away from me, so I waited till his parents left Arizona, drove to his house and grabbed "my stuff". I made a promise to never leave my underwear behind.

Two months later, I realized that I forgot to take my jacket.

Unless I was David Beckham, these underwears would have been of no value and I could have easily got a dozen of them from America, but for some reason my parents thought that I couldn't.

Other than a good shawerma and someone like Sha3ban Abdel Ri7eem, you can easily find anything these days in America.

Violence in Jordan

Violence is a part of our culture.

I remember the broken class doors, the one poor kid in each class in every school who everyone else would beat up every single day.

I remember a game which you might know, called Ja7sheh, where each team of 4 boys would bend over and one kid would jump over their backs one after another and start kicking them everywhere and the winning team is that which would not fall.

When I was a kid, a thief broke in the house of our neighbors and while trying to escape he jumped from the roof and broke his legs and was screaming of pain. I went down with my father to see what happened and I found about 20 people around him beating him up for half an hour although he was screaming of pain from his broken legs.

Whenever you're arrested for any reason, it's very normal to be beaten up in the police station and you can't complain even if you're not found guilty.

I acknowlege how beating students is acceptable in the majority of schools especially public ones in Jordan, not mentioning that it's also very common among Jordanian families, and beating varies from one to another. It frequently includes tying up children with ropes and beating them with sticks. There are children who have burned skins over their bodies and even develop physical deformities because of abuse inflicted by their parents, both the father and the mother and the older siblings.

Why do people beat their children? Many causes but none of them is a good one, including venting and frustration with life that more and more Jordanians are experiencing.

The decay of our moral values is also mentioned however beating kids was never against our moral or ethical values and it's time to make it one.

What's painful is seeing many intellectuals in Jordan, including my forensic medicine professors in college, supporting the physical abuse of children as a way of discipline. Here you know there's a problem, when the decision-makers are not willing to make decisions to protect the society.

Are children physically abused in the West? Yes they are but the difference is that this behavior is not acceptable and it is not something to be proud of, and the parents who abuse their children are questioned and punished as necessary.

Remember Suzanne Vega's Luka?
It's so easy to find a Jordanian Luka...